This invention relates to a system, method and article of manufacture for determining the appropriate fit and size of a garment on a customer and providing appropriate garment selections to meet a customer""s needs.
The traditional way to determine whether clothes fit is to take them into a fitting room and try them on. For a variety of reasons, including the growth of mail order and Internet shopping methods, the need for a more efficient in-store method for finding clothes that fit (for oneself and for others) and associated restocking costs, the purchase of garments for family members, and the need for a more efficient method for choosing garments to try on, the present automated method for size and fit prediction invention of the present invention is very useful. In the prior art, a size table, such as those, which may be included in a catalog, is a very rudimentary form of size prediction. In addition, an automated size table still just bases size and fit recommendations solely on size table information. Basing a fitting recommendation solely on size table information means that for a given garment brand, the same fitting recommendation will be given regardless of the garment cut. For example, if a given brand sells both a slim cut pair of pants and a loose-fitting pair of trousers, the same size recommendation will always be returned for each of the two pairs of pants. This leads to incorrect results when a customer might, for example, have a waist that fits best in a size 8, and hips that fit best in a size 10. Such a customer would wear a size 10 in slim cut pants, which have a good fit in the hips and loose fit in the waist, and a size 8 in the looser-fitting trousers, which have a good fit in the waist and wearable fit in the hips. For more accurate size prediction, it is necessary to go beyond size charts and look at the actual dimensions of the garments themselves.
Prior art patents have attempted to solve these problems associated with determining an accurate fit for garments on a customer. The U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,769 patent teaches a method for electronic fashion shopping using a computer whereby an individual""s body type is determined based upon that individual""s body measurements. However, the ""769 patent relies upon size tables and requires the customer to answer questions to determine a fashion category when determining appropriate garments for a customer. As described more fully below, the present invention solves the problems of the ""769 patent by using a fit prediction system and method taking into consideration the ideal fit of a garment in addition to the garment measurement and the customer""s body measurements.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,528 patent also describes an automated method for determining the fit of a garment on a customer. However, this patent teaches a digital dressing room in which a computer overlays a garment on top of a customer""s body dimensions. FIGS. 5A though 5F and 39B show how fit is determined in the ""528 patent. Again, the ""528 patent employs the use of tables to determine garment fit on a customer. Such methods do not adequately account for actual customer body measurements as compared to the actual garments themselves.
The present invention solves these and other problems by using a fit prediction system and method that looks at the garments themselves, properly evaluating fit in different areas, properly returning different results for different cuts of garments. With this system and method, the present invention goes beyond size prediction to actually tell how well specific garments will fit. When one moves beyond size tables, however, it becomes very difficult to create a scaleable product with a methodology that can be automatically applied to new garments, without manual intervention. Before developing the system and method described in further detail below, the fitting tolerances were developed individually for each garment, using a time-consuming empirical method. Fitting tolerances were then assigned to specific garment categories and sub-categories, meaning that specific categorization of new garments was critical to accuracy of results. Prior to the advances enabled by the present invention described herein, it was a very time consuming process to add additional garments to a size-prediction system. The system and method described herein are a breakthrough in that they provide a generalized format that can be applied to any garment, resulting in an accurate size and fit prediction without empirical methods of determining the range of body sizes and shapes which will fit into a particular size garment. In addition, the system and methods described herein can be used to select and purchase garment both remotely or in a bricks and mortar retail store tailored to suit a customer""s preferences and body shape in a more efficient manner.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a system, method and article of manufacture for predicting the fit and size of a garment on a customer for a particular garment dimension or a plurality of garment dimensions as they relate to a customer body dimension or dimensions and the ideal body dimension or dimensions for that garment.
Customer body dimensions may be obtained by scanning the individual""s body, obtaining body measurements using an electronic tape measure or allowing a customer to provide measurements as taken using a conventional tape measure.
The system and method may be used to provide garment selections based upon a customer""s body shape, personal preferences and prior purchasing history. The system can maintain a database to continuously provide improved garment selections to meet customers"" needs.
These and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description and accompanying drawings.